roberts



G. E. EGBERTS.

TOY PIANO.

APPLICATION EILED JULY 3l, 1919.

PatentedJuly 18, 1922.A

2 sHEEs-SHEET 1.

5.' 5f UeF/s NVENTO-R BY I MMM- H15 ATTORNEYS G. E. ROBERTS.

TOY PIANO.

APPLICATION FILED JULY 31,1919.

Patented July 18, 1922.

2 SHEETS-SHEET 2.

#I6 ATTORNEYS UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

GEORGE E. ROBERTS, OF SPENCER, OHIO, ASSIG-NOR TO THE SPENCER METALPRODUCTS COMPANY, OF SPENCER, OHIO, A CORPORATION 0F OHIO.

TOY i Primo.

Application led July 31,

To all whom if; may concern.'

Be it known that I, Gnonen E. ROBERTS, a citizen of the United States,residing at Spencer, in the county of Medina and State of Ohio, haveinvented certain new and useful Improvements in Toy Pianos; and I dohereby declare the following to be a full, clear, and exact descriptionof the invention, such as will enable others skilled in the art to whichit appertains to make and use the same.

This invention relates to musical instruments and particularly to toyinstruments. The toy piano and similar instruments on the market todayare chiey made of wood and easily come apart. It is diliicult to make awooden instrument of pleasing aspect without involving undue expense,and it is one of the objects of my invention to substitute metal in theworking elements in a toypiano, organ, etc., to secure great rigidity,and at the same time to produce an instrument of moderate cost, withpleasing tone qualities.

Other objects will appear in the following specification, referencebeing had to the drawings, in which:

Fig. l is a front view of theimprovements in a toy piano assembled inworking position.

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of the section to the left of the sectionline 2 2 of Fig. 1.

Fig. 3 is a side elevation of one of the keys of the piano.

Fig. l is a rear end view of the key shown in Fig. 3.

Fig. 5 is a top view of thev key shown in Fig. 3, with part of theretaining elements therefor. l

Fig. 6 is a development oil the sheet metal frame of the movement.

Fig. 7 is a plan ol the hammer assembly.

Referring to the drawings, the frame for the support of the workingelements of the movement is made of sheet metal and is stamped and cutlike that shown in Fig. (i. In this figure, the cut portions, as well asthe bounding lines are shown in full and the corner lines on which themetal is bent are shown dotted. The portion 1 is bent along the dottedline 2 at right angles to the portion 3, forming the front and toprespecportion 1 is bent along" tively. The back the dottedline at rightangles to the top Specification of Letters Patent.

Patented July is, 1922.

1919. Serial No. 314,461.

Yportion 3, to form the back part of the frame. The end piece 5 is thenbent upwardly along the dotted line 6 to serve as a connecting meansbetween the sound-bar frame and the exterior case of the piano (notshown). The right-hand end piece T is similarly bent upwardly along thedotted line S. The portion 9 is bent along the dotted line 10 to serveas a retaining means :for the key arms (Fig. 2) and the portions 11 and12 are bent in opposite directions at right angles to the part 4; toserve as stops for the keys, as more fully shown in Fig. 2.

The front portion 1 of the sheet metal has a series of ears 13 havingholes 14 punched or otherwise formed therein. The end portions of theseare twisted into planes at right angles to the front portion 10, shownmore 'fully in Fig. 1, to serve as retaining means :tor the keys. Theportions-15 and 16 of the front member 1 are bent at right anglesthereto along the dotted lines 17 and 18, although these as well asother portions of the device may be omitted ormodified without departingfrom the spirit of the -invention. End members '19 and v2() of the frontportion of the sheet metal stamping are adapted to abut against thevrodretains ing the keys, as later described.

Referring to Fig. 1, the keys are preferably Inade of sheet metal andthey are stamped by cutting, as in the metal of Fig. 6, or by drawing,if desired, so as to have a top portion21 and front portion .22, sideportions 23 and 24 extending around three of the sides of the key; Thetop portion 21 `preferably overhangs the front portion, as

shown at 25, so as to resemblethe ivory Akeys' of a ull-sized piano. Thetop portion :of the key is cut out at 2 6 to receive the ears 13 of thesheet metal 'frame of Fig. 6, and the rear part of the key 27 is reducedin width as shown more clearly in Fig. 5, so as to give ample clearancefor the movement of the key.

4The rear part of the key has an upstanding arm 28 punched out at 29.The top por-v tion of this arm 28 is bent backward at right angles at 30and has a piece of felt 31 glued or otherwise fastened thereto. Thesides 23 and 24 of the key are pierced by holes 32 for the reception ofa rod 33 (Fig. 2) when the ke s are assembled in position in thefra-ine.

he keys are all assembled on the rod 33,

which passes through all of the ears lf3, as more clearly shown in Fig.l. rlhe end pieces i9 and 20 spring into place against the ends of therod and retain it in place. ln order to properly space the keys, it isdesirable to place thin washers 34 of paperboard or similar material onthe rod 33 between adjacent lreys. The bach portion of the liey isadapted to play between the limiting flanges lll and 12 (Fig. 2) and toprevent the transmission of sound to the supporting frame, these flangesare covered on the contaeting face with felt 35 and 36.

The hammer assembly, as shown more clearly in Fig. 7, preferablyconsists of a sheet of cardboard, fiber or other suitable materialhaving a backing 37 of fabric or other flexible material glued orotherwise secured thereto. The sheet of :ardboard and fabric are cutwith a plurality of arms 38 having hammers 39 secured to the free ends.To secure the hammer assembly in position, the portion l0 which joinsall of the arms together is brel-:en along the dotted line -ll andsecured between the member 9 and the bach Ll by pressing these two partstogether, as shown more clearly in Fig. 2. The card-board portion of thehammer assembly is preferably eut or scored along the dotted line ell,so that the arms 3S are joined to the portion l0 only by the fabric.This gives a very flexible hinge that readily responds to the action ofthe keys'. If desired, the arms and bach portion Ll of the hammerassembh7 may be individually punched from cardboard and then glued inposition on the fabric, which may be eut either before or after theparts are `glued te it.

The top portion of the sheet metal frame has an upstanding rim l2punched around the opening 413. Posts lil integral with the rim l2 arebent to extend upwardly from the top. A plurality of sounding bars 4:5are mounted one on each pair of posts Lll by having the latter' extendthrough holes punched in the bars To prevent metallic ring and give theproper quality of tone, strips of felt 4:6, i7 are placed over 'theposts lll and between the rim l2 and the sounding bars. Two or moreposts of the series lf-l on each side of the opening i-fil arepreferably made slightly longer than the remainder. Trough-shapedmembers It8, 19, preferably made of sheet metal, are adapted to receivethe ends of the posts M and have holes to receive the protruding end ofthe longer posts just referred to. IThe protruding ends previouslyslitted in the stamping operation, if desired, are then deformed byspreading the prongs as at L9 and 50, or the ends may be riveted erpeened over in 'any way to retain the prongs in place.

The end portions and i" of the top 3 are bent upwardly at substantiallyright angles and have a plurality of ears l, with holes to receivescrews or other desired means for clamping the entire sound box assemblyinside al suitable piano casing (not shown).

rlhe external portions of the keys of the piano may be painted orenameled to resemble ivory, and the portions of the adjacent keys may becolored black .in imitation of the sharps and flats.

iin instrument when made and assembled in this way has been found to bevery rigid in construction, easy and free of operation, the soundqualities have been found to be equal or superior to the usual woodarrangement, and the strength and wearing qualities are far superiorthereto. l2 he cost of manufacture of my improvement is low when thecharacter of the resulting product is considered.

While l have described a particular embodiment of my invention, this isby way of example only, and it will be understood that variousmodifications may be made therein without departing from the spirit ofthe invention.

Having described my inventiiin, what l claim is:

l. ln toy pianos, a sheet metal key' bent to forni a top, a front andtwo side portions, said front portion being bent baclnva-rdly and thendownwardly to form an overhanging lip and an arm punched from the rearof said top and extending upwardly therefrom.

2. In toy pianos, a sheet metal key bent to form top, a front and twoside portions, said front portion being bent baclrwardly and thendownwardly to ferm an overhanging lip, the side portions having holesadapted to receive a pivotal rod for the key.

3. ln toy pianos, a sheet metal key bent to form a top, a front and twoside portions, said front portion being bent backwardly and thendownwardly to form an overhanging lip, said side portions being bentinto closer spaced relation -from an intermediate point to the rear endand having holes adapted to receive a pivotal rod for the lrey.

-l-. ln toy pianos, a sheet metal key bent to form a top, a front andtwo side portions, said front portion being` bent backwardly and thendownwardly to form an overhanging lip, said side portions being bentinto closer spaced relation with each other from an intermediate pointto the rear end, and

having holes adapted to receive a pivotal rod for the key and said tophaving a slot punched adjacent to said holes for the purpose described.

5. In toy pianos. a sheet metal key bent to form a top, a front and twoside portions, said front portion being bent backwardly and thendownwardly to form an overhanging lip, an arm punched from the rear ofsaid top and extending upwardly therefrom,said

side portions having holes adapted to receive a pivotal rod for the key.

6. In toy pianos, a sheet metal key bent to form a top, a front and twoside portions, said front portion being bent backwardly and thendownwardly to form an overhanging lip, said side portions being bentinto closer spaced relation with each other from an intermediate pointto the rear end and having holes adapted to receive a pivotal rod forthe key and said top having a slot punched adjacent to said holes, andan arm punched from the rear of s'zid top and eX- tending upwardlytherefrom.

7. In toy pianos, a frame consisting of a continuous piece of sheetmetal bent to Aform top, back and front portions, a plurality of spacedears punched from said front portion and twisted to lie in a plane atright angles thereto, a plurality oiE posts punched from said topportion and hammer retaining means punched from said rear portion.

8. In toy pianos, a continuous piece of sheet metal bent to form top,back and front portions, a plurality of spaced ears punched from saidfront portion and twistedrto' lie in a plane at right angles thereto, aplurality of posts punched from said top portion and extending upwardlytherefrom, lhammerretaii'iing means punched from said back portion andadditional flanges integrally joined to certain of said portions forsecuring the sheet metal in position.

9. In toy pianos, a frame consisting of a continuous piece of sheetmetal bent to form top, back and front portions, a plurality of spacedears punched from said front portion and twisted to lie at right anglesthereto, a rim punched from said top portion and extending upwardlytherefrom, a plurality of posts on the front and rear sides of said rim,additional flanges punched from certain of said portions adapted tosecure the sheet metal in position, and hammer-retaining means punchedfrom said rear portion.

10. In toy pianos, a frame consisting of a continuous piece of sheetmetal bent to form top, back and front portions, a plurality of spacedmeans punched from said front portion and twisted to lie in a plane atright angles thereto forming ears, a pair of spaced abutments punchedinwardly from said back portion, a plurality of posts extending upwardlyfrom said top portion, sound bars on said posts, a plurality of hammerssecured to said back and keys pivoted to said ears and having their rearends between said abutments and means on said keys for engaging saidhammers.

In witness whereof, I have hereunto signed my name this 26th day ofJuly, 1919.

GEO. E. ROBERTS.

